Sai Hiden (Sai's Story)
by ProfessorPalmarosa
Summary: Shortly after Sai and Ino's first date, a woman's corpse is discovered. Once more bodies are found, a rumor spreads across Konoha that this may be the work of a serial killer. As Sai continues the investigation at Kakashi's insistence, a pattern emerges. Every last victim is a former Foundation member, and the truth is far worse than he or anyone else could have ever imagined.
1. Prologue

' _She's terrified_. _Had this been any other generation, she'd be executed for this_.'

It was treason. No part of him could rephrase it to make the crime seem any less damning. This girl, the daughter of a Foundation member, had gone rogue, stolen chakra from several innocent people, and used that chakra to charge up a living bomb. That thing, if it had detonated, would have destroyed all of Konoha.

She had done what no boy or girl in the old program had ever successfully managed to do: blend in. Until her full story came forward and the Sixth Hokage broke his own rule about keeping the identities of ex-Foundation operatives anonymous, even the Seventh Hokage had been duped into thinking Sumire was just some normal girl.

She'd been classmates Naruto's son. Sai's son, too. Inojin had mentioned his Class Rep a few times before and said she always had other people on her mind. This was a girl who cared, or at least acted like she did.

Her hands were clasped closely to her chest, her dark eyes wide. There would be no escape this time, even if she tried to run.

Slowly, Sai stepped forward. Boruto, Shikadai, Inojin, Mitsuki, and Denki all tensed up as well. None of those children knew what to expect, but he could see a combination of dread, fear, and resentment on the faces of those boys.

' _Please don't take her away,_ ' those faces said. ' _She had no choice. She felt obligated to follow her father's dying wish. It wasn't her fault.'_

He wasn't sure if he fully agreed with the children. Sumire was old enough to make her own decisions, and her parents had been dead for years. Still, old wounds took a long time to heal. She probably had nobody there to reach out. And in situations like that, a person could turn into a black hole and fall back on old routines. Perhaps they didn't agree with those routines, but they felt safe for familiarity's sake alone.

That, he could understand. She'd done a terrible thing, but nobody died. Sumire was fortunate for that fact alone.

"What are you all doing here at this hour?" He knew Boruto had ventured off to find Sumire and Mitsuki tended to follow his every move. Shikadai, Denki, and his own son had no excuse. If Ino got word of this, she'd have a heart attack.

Shikadai stammered, trying to come up with some excuse that would get his friends in the least amount of trouble, but Inojin beat him to it with something Sai preferred anyway: the truth. "We came out here to look for Boruto and the others."

' _Silly boy,_ ' he thought, sighing in relief that everyone was fine. ' _You could have been killed_.'

They all faced him, standing up. Only that girl remained kneeling, keeping her back to him. It was time to make an arrest, to pry her away from the others forever. Her body language made it all too clear she didn't expect to survive this.

"I once walked a path similar to yours," he whispered in her ear, trying to calm her down. That pang of sympathy hurt his heart so badly that he felt an old bruise come back.

She faced him: a sad, forlorn spirit who thought she had nothing left to live for. He'd made such faces before. He'd also seen them from far too many people.

"Will you let me help you?"

There was a moment of silence. Sumire stared right back into his eyes, but he could tell some of the terror was quickly being replaced with grief and shame. By now the boys were suspicious and wanted to know what was going on.

And, true to form and as Sai expected, the girl gave them a smile. "I'm just going to go talk to him for a bit." Her voice sounded chipper, artificial. It was a vocal mask.

Lies could soothe, but children saw through them. "This was an incident brought up by past ghosts," Sai insisted to the others. "She won't be harmed." He had Naruto's word that she wouldn't.

' _I had to make this speech so many times to so many people,_ ' he remembered. ' _To the former Foundation children who attended Sakura and Ino's child therapy program. To the adults who were my age or older. To everyone who never truly thought for themselves…and to the very, very many that I failed…_ '


	2. 1 - Modest Proposal

"The Fourth Great Shinobi War is over, and we've officially set the foundation for the Shinobi Alliance. With any luck, this means we can put war behind us and focus on building more bonds with the cooperating lands. So…" Kakashi leaned back in his chair, taking off the Hokage hat. "What's next?"

There was always something else to be done. That was the first thing the two remaining Counsellors drilled into his head when he became Sixth Hokage.

Homura pulled a chair out for Koharu. Once she sat down, he did the same. They had seen every Hokage take the seat in their lifetime. They studied under the First and Second, had been teammates with the Third, and served as advisors for the Fourth, Fifth…and now the Sixth.

"This next discussion won't be as pleasant," Homura remarked, "but it needs to be addressed."

Koharu hissed in a deep breath. Kakashi couldn't tell if it was from the aches and pains of old age or from some sort of guilt. With these two, he never could tell.

"Cooperating with other leaders to solve worldwide problems is easy, Kakashi."

At least they acknowledged his hatred for honorifics. Even Shizune and his childhood friends addressed him as _Lord Hokage_ these days, much to his annoyance.

"Now comes the hard part of being Hokage. We're in peace time, and there's no sign of another war on the horizon. With that in mind, some of the things we created to prepare for war are no longer needed."

' _Just come out and say it already, Homura. Whatever it is…_ '

"Now we'll need to figure out what must be done with some of our own people: people who never officially existed, to be more precise."

He wasn't dense like one of his students, or gullible like another one. "You're talking about the Foundation."

Homura and Koharu both nodded their heads in confirmation.

Kakashi heard the click of an opening door. A man in full ANBU garb came in, still hiding his face behind a cracked and repaired mask modeled after a wild boar. Instead of saying anything, the man leaned against the wall and listened patiently.

Kakashi had been expecting him, so he said nothing about his arrival. The Counsellors still had the floor.

"Simply disbanding it won't solve anything," Koharu insisted. "And those people…"

' _Those people?_ ' Kakashi thought, feeling a bit of anger in his heart. ' _They're Konoha shinobi, too. They always have been.'_

"They don't serve any purpose anymore," she continued. "I'm also hesitant to reintegrate them with the rest of our villagers. Most of them went into that program as very young children. Breaking an entire lifetime of habits may be more than Haruno Sakura's therapy program can handle."

"Besides," Homura chimed in. "Isn't her focus more on children? Most ex-Foundation members are adolescents and young adults. By that point, a personality—or lack thereof—is set. Nothing short of full reconditioning by the Torture and Interrogation Force could break an entire lifetime worth of indoctrination."

The other part didn't need to be said aloud because they all knew. Very, _very_ few of them made it to a ripe old age. Once Foundation members began to slow down from age or injury, Danzō conveniently managed to assign them to missions they had no hope of surviving. They'd accept it without hesitation, die sometime during the resolution, and vanish into nothing. Not even a corpse would be left behind.

Some of the diehards in the mainstream ANBU were the same way.

The old man continued, stretching his hands until his swollen knuckles popped. "They're brainwashed beyond repair, Kakashi. They may have followed orders from both Tsunade and yourself once Danzō died, but that was in a time of crisis and they were all told to think of the village's security first and foremost. War was on the horizon. Now, in peace time—"

They heard a huff of air come from the masked man: like a forced, sarcastic laugh. When he realized all three sets of eyes were on him, he faked a couple of coughs and reached in his pocket for an inhaler.

"In peace time," Kakashi interjected, "Yamato graciously accepted a post to spy and monitor Orochimaru's actions, just to make sure we receive no further nasty surprises in Otogakure."

No more missing men, women, and children. No more traumatized children leaving their friends behind for abstract things like power. No more dead Hokages. That sort of thing.

"And," he added, "Sai has really come into his own lately, too. He investigated the Land of Silence for us and gained all kinds of valuable intel on Gengo. We wouldn't even know how to properly restrain him in the Blood Prison had it not been for what he provided us."

"You're conveniently forgetting that everyone else on Sai's squad died under torture during that mission and he switched to Gengo's side. He nearly killed Nara Shikamaru on that mission."

"Sai was under a genjutsu, Counsellor. Every Konoha shinobi we sent out there aside from Shikamaru fell for the same thing, even Ro and Soka. They're elite ANBU. _My_ ANBU."

He noted that the masked man's posture changed a bit upon hearing those two names, not that Kakashi was surprised. He'd recently taken over as the head of ANBU operations after another recent incident was laid to rest. That incident was another thing Kakashi hoped the Counsellors took into consideration regarding the subject of Sai.

"Alright," Kakashi continued. "If we don't want to praise Sai for his actions in the Land of Silence, that's fine by me. Let's talk about something he did right before he accepted that mission. Tsumiki Kido, our former head of ANBU, strong-armed the Daimyo—and you, too, Counsellor Homura. Don't think I've forgotten—into cutting the therapy program's budget in half and earmarking those finances for ANBU instead.

"He used that money to conduct unethical experiments on people, including children. He impersonated one of our finest shinobi, abducted and intended to murder another, and planned on selling his research information to enemy nations. It wasn't only Ino and Sakura who brought that man down. Sai was also on that team."

"Except…" Koharu interjected. "Kakashi? Wasn't _Kido_ from the Foundation, too?"

Another forced cough-laugh came from their fourth party. "Permission to speak?"

' _Oh, please do,_ ' Kakashi thought. "Granted."

The mask was slowly taken off by a sinewy, scarred-up arm. Beneath it was the face of a man just past the age of fifty. Once the mask was completely off, he reached in his pocket for a case and put a pair of horn-rimmed glasses over his unfriendly brown eyes.

If he wasn't so badly roughed up from a lifetime of doing the village's dirty work, perhaps he would have been considered handsome. But his face was sharp and harsh, like he constantly smelled something bad but didn't have the nerve to say anything about it.

But he _did_ have that nerve. It was one of many reasons why Kakashi promoted him to Kido's old job as head of ANBU.

"I'm amazed at how this village has completely changed their opinion of the Foundation. When I was young, I recall two people in this room deeming it necessary enough to encourage the Third Hokage to sign the proposal. What changed?"

" _Times_ changed," Homura argued. "That and both Lord Third and Shimura Danzō are dead. At one time, that program was put in place so the Hokage could have plausible deniability when certain missions were performed. It was all for the village, and to keep up with enemies like Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Kirigakure. Considering those lands are now our allies, the program is moot."

"So…what, then?" The man moved out of his chair with the flexibility of a cat and pulled something out of his pocket: a tiny black pill. "How about this?"

Kakashi knew what the pill was. Judging from the way both Counsellors recoiled when they saw what the man offered, they knew too.

During Kakashi's time in ANBU, every operative carried a cyanide pill on their person, just in case a critical mission was about to be compromised or there was no hope of survival. Neither Sai nor Yamato could tell him what sort of things transpired under Danzō, but it seemed the sort of thing he'd assign to his own people.

And Mikuro just confirmed it.

"Just give the order," he hissed. "If they heard it from a Counsellor or the Hokage, they'd do it. They wouldn't even hesitate. They'll swallow their pills and leave this world in unison. But that creates a problem of a different kind, doesn't it?"

One of Mikuro's hands twitched as he spoke. "They'll still need to be _disposed of,_ right? You could order them to dig a mass grave and throw their bodies in the hole for faster, neater cleanup. It certainly beats sending somebody to the aftermath and having him tidy up the mess all by himself."

He had experience in that. They'd used Mikuro for that very thing before, but it hadn't been for the Foundation. Kakashi knew he was using this morbid hyperbole to make a point. Not a single thing he said was meant to be taken as a true suggestion, but it still hurt to hear it. He just hoped it was enough.

"But even with that, it's not like they can bury themselves. And for the ones who managed to create an identity for themselves, what will you tell the friends they made during the Fourth Great Shinobi War? If you choose to spare those and not the others, what will you tell _them_?"

"Mikuro," Koharu sighed, rubbing her temples. "You're being unreasonable. Nobody's talking about disposing of an entire group of people, just because they're dangerous."

' _But there's a precedent,_ ' Kakashi realized. ' _Does she even realize how hypocritical her words sound?_ '

"I'd certainly _hope_ not. They've given their lives to keep this village safe for nearly two generations." Mikuro stood up, brushing himself off. "If the village wants to turn their back on them and wash their hands of the whole thing, then maybe Danzō had it wrong. Maybe this place isn't worth saving after all."

"You're out of line, sir! You're—"

"Kakashi?" He was already heading for the door. "Let's postpone our meeting until after your council comes up with a _real_ solution."

"Agreed." But Kakashi already had ideas, ideas that he felt one of his former students would be all too happy to accept.


	3. 2 - Therapy

"Does anyone else have anything they'd like to share with the group?" The air conditioner cranked on, blowing freon and musty-smelling air toward the attendees.

It's their twelfth session: the end of their second month. After what transpired with Tsumiki Kido, the annual budget money allotted for ANBU was reorganized to set up a group therapy program for former Foundation operatives.

When Kakashi first proposed the idea to Sakura, she asked Sai if he thought it would be effective. He did. He'd told her that the reason he began to open up to other people was because he had a chance to talk to them.

A lot of his former colleagues were silent by nature. They only spoke when somebody addressed them directly. This forced them to open up and get used to interactions with others outside of missions.

It also created something else that was very important: a support system. The Hokage had given everyone orders to conceal their status as former Foundation members for their own safety. This gave them a safe place to talk, surrounded by people who were going through the same thing.

Sai was lucky and he knew it. Once Sakura and Naruto found out what sort of a life he'd lived in that program, they became far more understanding. So far as he knew, they never looked down on him or treated him like a victim. They made a conscious effort to include him and even asked to keep him on the squad after their first mission ended.

Friends like that could make all the difference. And until his former brothers and sisters in arms independently found their own friends, at least they could turn to each other.

He'd never miss a session, he told Sakura. Not unless he was assigned another mission abroad.

At first, he was afraid that Mitokado Leiji, their village-appointed therapist, would need to pick a volunteer from the room again.

' _It's because he wasn't specific,_ ' Sai recognized. ' _Unless he points at somebody and says_ _ **hey, you**_ _, everyone will keep sitting here and wait for someone else to speak up._ ' He was about to volunteer and set an example, but felt a pleasant rush of surprise hit him when one of the younger group members raised his hand.

This boy was twelve years old. He would have been about ten when the Fourth Great Shinobi War ended and nine when Danzō died. Even then, the fact he was sitting here with the adults meant he had passed the test at eight or nine. Somewhere, there was a dead eight-year-old: a former peer this boy had to smother out of existence to secure his spot as an operative.

"The Hokage placed me on a genin team," he announced in that same professional, detached affect they were all trained to use. "He says it's because I'm below minimum ANBU age. I have to wait two more years before I can even apply."

At one time, the village made an exception for a talented genius to enter the ANBU at an unprecedented young age. But that was Uchiha Itachi. This boy was no Itachi.

Leiji put his clipboard down and looked at the child. "Gin, why do you want to apply?"

 _Gin_. Like many people in this room, he didn't have a name when Danzō died. Some of them had taken temporary names on missions that were active when Uchiha Sasuke killed their leader. They simply chose to keep those names. Most, however, left it to the Hokage or other people they trusted to rename them.

Leiji had named Gin, as well as nearly a dozen other people in the group. He had offered to perform hypnotherapy to help some people trace back their memories, but nobody had taken him up on that offer. Most of them didn't want to remember.

"I want to apply because I'm overqualified for genin work," Gin explained matter-of-factly. "It's a waste of my time."

"I would like for you to consider something. Perhaps you are on that team so you can be around other children your age. You have a chance to make friends on that squad."

"No. I'm there because their old teammate had no sense of self-preservation. The idiot blew himself up," Gin remarked. "I'm just a replacement."

' _No_ ,' Sai wanted to tell him. ' _You're a new teammate. People aren't replaceable or interchangeable._ ' But he understood that sentiment. How long had he felt like a cheap replacement of Sasuke? Even Naruto and Sakura had said as much to him before they got to know him better.

Sakura wished she could take those words back. She told him as much. He said he forgave her a long time ago, and he had, but sometimes those words still ate at him. Those very words had made him weak in a recent mission. He hoped nobody on Gin's team said something similar to him, but he strongly suspected they did.

"Are you done?" a ginger-haired girl to Sai's left inquired. That girl named herself _Anzu_ after her favorite food. She kept her hair in a short pixie style and wore a pair of big yellow-tinted glasses over her green eyes.

She also tended to bring something to keep her hands busy during the sessions. Today, it was a needlepoint project. Nobody complained about it. A lot of them were tempted to bring distractions, too.

"Yes." Gin withdrew his hand. He'd kept it raised the whole time. That hand was now finger-brushing his mint green hair. It caught a snag, so he spent the next few seconds trying to hunt down the hair with the split end and tugged it out. "Did you want to go?"

"I can," Anzu suggested. "Should I, _Leiji-sensei_?"

"You may, if you wish," Leiji insisted. "This is an open session, Anzu. People are free to speak at any point, so long as they don't speak over someone who's sharing."

"My brother and I decided to resign from ANBU," she announced. _Brother_ , of course, meant a former squad partner. Had they been alive, Yamanaka Fu and Aburame Torune probably would have referred to each other as brothers, too.

It was like Sai and Shin. He missed his brother so much.

"Why would you do that?" a dark-haired woman wearing large orange earrings asked. She'd been pretty in her youth, but was well into her forties now. All those pink battle scars had gone across her face, like gold in cracked porcelain.

"ANBU's all we know," the woman, Hinoto, continued. "We're good at it. Danzō-sama trained us to be elite. It's the only path we can take."

Hinoto always got like this during sessions. As soon as anyone else in the group began to voice a semblance of independent or divergent thought, she'd shut them down.

Leiji encouraged it at first because he thought Hinoto was coming from a caring place. She was older than most: somebody who had somehow managed to stay alive as a Foundation operative since before Namikaze Minato became Fourth Hokage. Every memory Sai had of his early days in the program, Hinoto and a handful of others were there.

That didn't make her motherly. This woman had assassinated a Daimyo under Danzō's orders before. She'd taken out an entire feudal family without hesitation. The old guard—rather, what was left of them—were some truly terrifying people.

Now Leiji cleared his throat every time Hinoto spoke up: a passive-aggressive queue for her to hush. Since he was in a position of power, she usually listened. Today, she didn't.

"Please don't silence me this time, doctor. I think Anzu is making a mistake."

"Oh?" Anzu piped up, continuing to stitch her project. It was legible by now: the kanji for _hope_. "How is trying something new a mistake? I thought the Hokage was encouraging us to branch out and try new things."

"It's a mistake because you'll fail." Hinoto sounded so sure of herself. "Whatever you chose to do on some stupid little whim, you weren't trained to do it. Your purpose in life is to—"

"Hinoto," Leiji warned. "What is our one rule in here?"

"Anyone can speak, so long as nobody talks over whoever is sharing…"

"And what are you doing?"

"Sir, she's being foolish. I'm only trying to help her."

In some ways, Sai pitied Hinoto, Kinoto, Hyō, Kanoe, Terai, and the other older members. He'd stayed behind to talk with Leiji about psychology before. He'd said that out of everyone, it would be hardest for the adults. Those between the ages of eight and twenty would have the easiest time, as their personalities were still malleable.

It was the ones who survived past thirty that made the Konoha Council worry. Those people were adamantine: too set in their ways to accept any change.

The older ones would gravitate toward what they already knew. They'd take positions in ANBU whenever one became available. Either that or they'd ask for the deadliest, most hostile long-term mission the Hokage could give them and hope they died in combat.

The younger ones could find a new purpose more easily, and it seemed Anzu had. The older ones felt aimless and lost.

"Do you feel like you made a mistake, Anzu?"

"No, sir," she replied calmly. "I saw who the Hokage nominated to take over leadership of the ANBU program and no longer felt comfortable working there."

Sai heard about that, too. The seat had gone to Shimura Mikuro: some distant cousin of Danzō's who inherited the man's civilian estate upon his death. He'd been with the Hokage's side of ANBU since his teenage years and led some of the nastiest, goriest, most unpleasant campaigns Sarutobi Hiruzen could possibly order. Word was that man sabotaged an entire village once.

Seeing someone like that take over meant more of the same. Those who wanted more of the same chose to stay. Those who wanted a shot at a normal life did not.

"Sorry if I offended you, Hinoto-senpai." She wasn't sorry at all.

"Hey," Sai whispered to Anzu as another man shared. This guy always had the same thing to say, so he didn't pay it much heed. "What were you going to tell us?"

"I got approved for a small business loan," Anzu replied. "We're opening a craft store. If you want to try selling some of your art in there, let us know. We'll set you up."

Sai smiled. "That's very kind of you. Thank you." Anzu simply nodded and returned to her needlepoint.

"Sai."

"Yes?" He'd dreaded this.

"You haven't shared with the group since you came back from the Land of Silence."

He wanted to forget about the Land of Silence. What he'd nearly done to Shikamaru, what Ino had to do to _save_ him—

"There hasn't been much to share," he lied, silently hoping the therapist would understand that.

"Quite the contrary," Leiji replied calmly. The fluorescent lights from the room reflected off his half-moon glasses, hiding his dark blue eyes. "I think there's _plenty_ we could talk about."

"Like how you turned traitor," Hinoto offered, only for another adult to give her a dirty look. "Didn't you almost kill Nara Shikamaru? Isn't that guy supposed to be Uzumaki Naruto's future advisor? That's about as bad as trying to kill Koharu-sama or Homura-sama."

And upon hearing Homura's name, Leiji clasped his clipboard a bit tighter, well until his knuckles turned white. Some other distant cousin, Sai suspected, considering they shared a surname.

Sai pressed his lips into a flat line and wished he could make himself small, or perhaps invisible. "Gengo had everyone under a genjutsu," he explained. "I couldn't break it."

But Ino did. He owed her so much. While under Gengo's hypnosis, he felt like a prisoner inside his own body. When Shikamaru arrived, all he'd wanted to do was break out of the trance, scream, and warn him. Instead, all he could do was slip food into Shikamaru's cell and tell him to give up.

Ever since they came back, he couldn't look Shikamaru in the eye.

"But I have good news, I guess," he murmured.

Normally, Sai didn't mind sharing. He liked that he could be an example and show the others that there was nothing to fear in therapy. If Hinoto hadn't been here, if his therapist hadn't forced him to talk about something that brought about nothing but recent trauma and guilt—

"Go ahead, Sai." He'd expected to hear those words from his therapist, but it wasn't him. It was Hyō: one of the last people he ever would have expected to make any sort of progress.

It felt like a lifetime ago, but Hyō had broken into his temporary apartment and held him at knifepoint once, just to give him the details of a mission. The attack was completely unnecessary, except possibly as a scare tactic.

Hyō never shared in these sessions, even when the therapist coaxed him. He did, however, encourage others to talk. Sai liked to think that he was learning empathy by doing that.

"I have a date tonight," Sai admitted. Several people in the room looked mildly impressed, or at least surprised. "I have no idea what I'm doing."

Ino had recently confessed to liking him. It was Sai's first experience with that sort of attraction, but he realized that he wanted to know more about her, too.

"So I told her that I'd leave it up to her to choose what we're doing."

She seemed a bit disappointed that he had no ideas, but not exactly surprised. Ino insisted she'd choose something nice and romantic, but could he even _be_ romantic?

"A friend of hers recommended a nice restaurant. I think we're going there for dinner." And Chouji was a total food snob. If he said a restaurant was nice, Sai would take him at his word.

"Sai…" Leiji smiled. "That's _wonderful_." Did he pick up on a faint trace of patronization in that tone, or was he simply feeling anxious because of the Land of Silence comment? "Have you thought about buying the girl a bouquet?"

Oh, he thought about it. But then he remembered Ino worked at a flower shop and would know exactly how much money he spent on a bouquet. "I have."

"Here." This time, big burly Kinoto spoke up. He held out a book for Sai. "I had a date last week, too."

"You _paid_ that girl," Hinoto grumbled. "That doesn't count."

"Yes, well, _ahem_ …" Kinoto nudged the younger man, handing him the tiny booklet. "I used some of the tips in there and it went well."

 _The Ladykiller's Playbook_ , the book was called. There, in the corner, was one other statement: _her pleasure is guaranteed._

Leiji cleared his throat and stood up, brushing off his white coat. "I think we can call it a day, everyone. Next week, we'll go through some conflict management exercises. Hinoto, I especially want _you_ to pay attention and—"

Their therapist's face met Hinoto's fist. Leiji caught himself on the desk, clasping onto the side to stop himself from falling. Hinoto didn't have her cat mask to cover her face today. Those were forbidden in the therapy circle. As a result, one thing became apparent: anger was the first emotion she'd learned to remaster.

"I've had enough of your bullshit," she hissed, holding an open pen against his neck. "You can tell Councilor Homura that if you want. You can even tell the Hokage for all I care. We aren't criminals and these sessions aren't mandatory. I'm only coming back if you force me."

"Hinoto—"

She shoved past the others, storming out in a fit of rage. Sai saw which direction she was heading once she left the building: eastward, toward ANBU headquarters.


	4. 3 - The Ladykiller's Playbook

The first thing Sai noticed about the book Kinoto offered him was that most of the advice was contradictory. Some sections talked about spoiling a girl like a princess and saying yes to everything she wanted. Other sections said that some girls preferred bad boys and that acting aloof would make the date more of a fun challenge.

' _That explains Sasuke, I guess_.'

That guy had a whole slew of people who adored him, but he was so standoffish. Sasuke seldom spoke and found a new excuse each week as to why he wasn't in the village. So far as Sai knew, despite Sakura saying they were together, she and Sasuke had never gone on a date.

' _And if both Sasuke and I were vying for Ino's attention, I know who she would choose._ '

Not him. She'd lusted after Sasuke since her Academy years.

Even Sakura wasn't immune. Sai wasn't sure if Sasuke was doing it intentionally, but most of the women Sai knew outside of the Foundation found Sasuke attractive. That included Ino, so he decided he'd pay more attention to the "bad boy" sections in the book and model some of his behavior off what he'd seen of the last surviving member of the Uchiha Clan.

Sai had recently purchased and assembled a work desk for his apartment. The instructions were mostly badly-drawn pictures and didn't have numbers to indicate the sequence of events or even the orientation of the pieces. Putting that thing together had taken an entire afternoon, but it felt so easy by comparison.

At least _The Ladykiller's Playbook_ told him he did one thing right: he let Ino choose the venue.

' _Kinoto says it worked for him._ ' And Kinoto, like any other Foundation member, had always been honest with him.

It was one of the few things he missed about that program: the honesty. Other people, even those he'd come to love and respect, lied on the regular. Foundation members never lied to each other.

So he kept reading, trying to filter past the contradictions with a Sasuke-esque personality in mind.

…

Ino told Sai well in advance that the restaurant enforced a strict dress code. As a result, he picked the nicest outfit he owned. It wasn't anything too fancy: just slate gray trousers and a black mandarin shirt with silver buttons. It wasn't too far removed from his old winter uniform, but a little more formal.

Ino, on the other hand, arrived wearing something truly lovely to behold: an eggplant purple _cheongsam_ with a dogwood flower pattern and side slits stretched all the way up her thighs. Sai supposed that made it a little less impractical than most women's formalwear. Ino's legs would be naked, but at least she could run or tackle somebody in that dress.

"Hey there, handsome!" Ino teased, hands neatly folded atop a tiny clasp-purse. "I didn't keep you waiting long, did I?"

 **Let her do most of the talking. A good rule to follow is offer one word for every two sentences she speaks. You don't necessarily have to listen, but at least act like you are. If she stops every once in a while, nod your head or say** ** _yeah_** **.**

Good. He could say something. "No."

"I'm glad to hear it!" She moved closer, offering one of her hands for him to take. Sai accepted it, but only after a brief moment of hesitation.

Holding hands used to be dangerous. If squad partners were ever caught doing that, they were conveniently split apart into different teams the following day. It was worse among the candidates: those who hadn't graduated yet. That kind of connection used to be forbidden. It could get a kid killed.

"I've been thinking about this dinner all week," Ino confessed. "Chōji and Karui raved about this place, but I've never tried Land of Tea cuisine before. Have you?"

"Never."

"Not too talkative tonight, are you? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah." He wasn't sure why, but Ino seemed a bit put off by his terseness. Maybe she needed some praise.

 **Tell her one thing you like about her:** ** _one_** **thing! Going overboard with compliments and praise is a red flag for a woman. It means you're desperate. Instead, tease her. Poke fun at her a little bit. This shows her that you're already comfortable enough with her to joke around.**

"I like your outfit," he decided to tell her. The book insisted women liked to hear something nice about their appearance, but he remembered the other piece of advice: teasing. "But those slits go a little high, don't they?"

" _Every_ cheongsam's cut like that," Ino reminded him, tugging his hand along so she could lead them inside.

She'd done a great job at choosing a nice establishment. The first thing Sai noted about the interior was the sparkly chandelier hanging from the ceiling, which had been painted to resemble the sky. The restaurant name was spelled out in golden kanji straight ahead, where a receptionist wearing a silk tangerine top and white skirt stood at attention, waiting for them to approach.

Sai even noted that the music was live. A woman in traditional clothes strummed a peaceful melody on a large, long-stringed instrument. Her backdrop was an indoor waterfall, complete with a lit-up koi pond.

This wasn't anything remotely close to going out for ramen with Naruto. This seemed more like the kind of restaurant Danzō and the Councilors treated foreign leaders to when they visited Konoha.

Maybe he'd tell Naruto about this place later, if the food was any good. Perhaps it wasn't Naruto's type of atmosphere, but felt fitting for negotiations with another kage…or possibly winning over his future father-in-law. Tonight, Sai was facing negotiations of another sort.

"Nice place."

"Yeah." This time, Ino was the one to turn staccato. She gave him an expression: one that said _not so fun when I do it, is it?_

But he couldn't read minds. All Sai saw was a trace of disappointment from the blonde.

…

"Do we need more time to look over the menu?"

' _No,_ ' he thought. ' _We need a translator_.' He had no idea what even half of these ingredients were.

Their waiter, a handsome fellow with piercing blue eyes, kept coming back every few minutes. At first, Sai was impressed by the service. Then he noted the impatient looks of people in nearby seats and realized this guy was coming back more frequently to their table so he could look at Ino.

He wasn't jealous or anything; he knew Ino was pretty. Besides, she seemed to like the attention. She'd give him a little smile each time it happened, turn her voice a bit more high-pitched and girlish when the waiter came back, and then proceed to tap the tip of her foot against Sai's ankle under the table.

"What do you recommend?" Ino asked. "We're having a hard time deciding. Aren't we, Sai?" When he replied with an automatic _yes_ , her eye twitched.

"We have a special on the matsaman curry tonight," the waiter suggested. "It's a coconut-based beef curry with potato, star anise, cinnamon, and clove."

"I'll try it," Sai decided.

"I think I'll go with the tom yum soup," Ino replied in that sweet tone. Once the waiter started writing down their orders, she began to fidget a bit, tucking her hair behind her ear. Sai watched, but didn't say anything. He'd expected her to be more talkative.

 **And unless a woman's a prostitute, she won't appreciate the feeling of being "bought". When the waiter comes out, make it clear the check will be split, not together.**

"We'll be splitting the check," he told the waiter. "I don't want my date to feel like I'm paying for her services."

"Like you're _what_?" Both the waiter and Ino stared at him in disbelief. Ino's mouth was wide open.

"I'm…gonna go and, uh…" The waiter gave a nervous laugh, all because he wasn't sure how to react. "I'm gonna place that order for you…" He walked away rather quickly, holding his notepad over his lap.

Ino very loudly cleared her throat and gave him a dirty look.

' _This isn't going well,'_ Sai realized. ' _Did I miss something?_ '

"That waiter seems nice," he commented, trying to get her to relax. "I think he likes you."

"Considering you just made it sound like I'm available, I'm _sure_ he likes me," she replied. "Seriously. What's with you tonight? You're acting weird."

Weird. Not cool. Not aloof. Not mysterious. _Weird_.

Did the book have anything for this? He leaned over, pulling the tiny thing out, and skimmed over the pages. ' _She's not responding to the strong silent type that well. Should I try another approach?_ '

What would she like, then? Pickup lines? Being told yes to everything she wanted?

"What's that?" Ino asked. Her breathing had turned heavy, all out of frustration. "Is that a—oh my god. It _is_."

When Sai looked up from the book, Ino's face was turning the color of a turnip and her eyes were wet with tears. "What's wrong?"

"What's _wrong_?" Her voice was low, ominous. Her nails dug into the side of the table. "Where do I even start, Sai? You've barely said a word to me all night. I got all dolled up for this, and all you can say to me is that you think the slit on my skirt's too high. You just insinuated to our waiter that I'm a _prostitute_ , and you won't even treat me!"

She fished money out of her pocket so she could place it on the table. "We're getting our meals to go," she called out to the waiter. "To _separate_ destinations, no less."

She continued to fume, to glower, to scowl and scorn. "I'm starting to think I made a mistake with you. If this is how you treat girls, you probably shouldn't date. _Ever_."

Sai looked down at his empty plate. Something smelled nice in the distance, and his mouth salivated, but he knew he wouldn't be able to eat a single bite. His stomach had worked itself into a knot of raw nerves and nausea.

"I can't believe I thought this was a good idea," Ino grumbled, rubbing her hand across her face. "I was willing to give it a shot. You were really cute and I wanted to get to know you better, but—"

"It's alright." He wouldn't put up a mask this time. The whole reason he agreed to use that book was because it worked for a comrade and he wanted things to go well.

It hadn't.

And maybe Ino was right. Maybe he shouldn't date.

"We all make mistakes." With that, he put his own money on the table: enough to cover both meals. "I'm sorry I turned out to be one."

"Sai…" Ino reached for the book and read a few pages. It was some of the most sexist, misogynistic garbage she'd ever seen put to paper. Just reading it made her angry again, but she realized it wasn't at him. He was only trying to do his research so he wouldn't mess up. " _I'm_ sorry. I didn't mean—"

He shirked away when she tried to touch him: like a dog that had just been kicked by its master. She'd seen that hurt look before in the Land of Silence: those same sad eyes, that same broken expression. There was a trace of humiliation on his pale face, making his white cheeks turn rosy. He didn't cry, though. She'd only ever seen him do that once.

He got up, walking out of the restaurant.

"Hey. Wait." Ino made sure one last time there was enough money on the table. Forget the food. She had to repair some damage. "I know you only picked that up because you wanted this to go well."

He didn't respond, but he did walk faster. At this point, he was too afraid that anything he said would make the situation worse. ' _I've done enough damage,'_ he thought. ' _I need to see if Hyō or Kinoto are up at this hour, or call Dr. Leiji._ ' They'd know what to do.

But he also wanted to give Kinoto an honest review of that stupid book. He never planned to use it again. This was a disaster. He could hear Ino asking him to slow down and wait up, but he didn't want to talk to her.

' _Was this the only time she was honest with me?_ ' His heart sank and wouldn't stop hurting.

Sai chose to exit through the back rather than the front doors. This placed him in a back alley where the waiters liked to take smoke breaks, but he was more interested in the dumpster. He briefly contemplated throwing himself in there, but he wasn't that dramatic of a person.

"Sai! Sai, please. Wait."

' _I know you meant well, Kinoto-senpai, but your advice was bad advice._ ' His real reason for going to the dumpster involved throwing the playbook away where nobody else would find it.

"Please talk to me."

He opened the dumpster lid, briefly cringing from the stench. There were few smells worse than rotting food, but—

Ino screamed. He'd never heard her shriek like that before, so he turned around. Her face was every bit as pale as his own, her eyes wide as saucers. One trembling hand was stretched outward, pointing toward the dumpster. "Sai…look…"

He climbed down out of curiosity, wondering what had her so visibly shaken. The playbook never made it into the garbage because he dropped it out of shock. A puddle of blood was seeping from the back left corner of the dumpster.

Sai took a deep breath and moved closer. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but finding a dead woman wasn't it. She was still fresh, with several stab wounds and obvious signs of strangulation on her body.

"She's…" He took a deep breath, trying his best to remain calm. "Ino, can you call the Hokage? I know this woman."

"Right…" But he could tell she was taking this very badly. "Sai…? How do you…"

"She's ANBU."


	5. 4 - Damage Control

Several years ago, back when Sai was just a child, local crimes within the village were handled by the Konohagakure Military Police Force. That force was comprised entirely of the Uchiha Clan and was never fully reinstated after the massacre.

In peaceful times, ANBU and the Konoha Intelligence Division could pick up the brunt of those responsibilities and investigate homicides within Konoha city limits. ANBU typically tended to call the shots for high profile cases, such as the assassination of a clan head or potential threats made against the Hokage or the Council.

Everything else, just like this case, was mostly headed by Konoha Intelligence. People in long-sleeved coats (mostly black, gray, or khaki) came along to take photographs at various angles and take notes. Every little thing that seemed related to the case was picked up with tweezers and placed in separate bags.

In the corner, he saw Ino talking to a bald, scarred-up man wearing a high-collared black coat and a matching dark bandana. That was Morino Ibiki: the head of the Torture and Interrogation Force within the Konoha Intelligence Division.

Ino's father, Inoichi, had served as a captain within Konoha Intelligence and worked many cases with Ibiki in the past, which was all Sai could figure when he saw Ino hug that man. Ibiki wasn't exactly known for being a cute or cuddly guy, but Ino was clearly familiar enough with him to get away with doing that.

He'd expected her to be in hysterics by now, but she was impressively calm. She may have screamed when she first saw the body, but now she was recounting for Ibiki step-by-step what she'd witnessed.

"My date walked off to get some fresh air and I followed him. He tried to throw something into the dumpster, and that's when I saw the blood. He moved the dumpster out of the way and…we found her."

"You made one helluva find, kid," Ibiki's partner, Mitarashi Anko, remarked. "She's more carved up than a holiday ham."

Anko carried quite the reputation around the village as Orochimaru's sole official student and one of the few survivors of his experiments. She had survived the curse mark and probably suffered under a slew of interrogations herself, just to test her loyalty to Konoha.

Sai had a lot of respect for Konoha Intelligence and was even contemplating signing on board to join their ranks rather than ANBU, just to try something different. One of the reasons for that actually was because of Anko.

She was sort of an inspiration for him, not that she knew that. She'd come out of so many bad situations, but didn't let it define her. Most importantly, she already treated Sai like a professional. Talking to him was business as usual, just as it would be for any other ANBU contact.

"Come here," she ordered. "I want your opinion on something."

Sai squatted down, noting how close they were to the corpse. "What are we looking for?"

"Aside from the obvious: clues?" Anko touched the woman's neck. "You see this strong discoloration around her neck and how part of her face is purple?" Sai nodded. He knew those were signs of strangulation, as were the amount of burst blood vessels in the woman's eyes.

He'd strangled people under orders before. A garrote was especially useful, but the cut marks weren't deep enough to be caused by one of those. There were thin scratches on her neck: like thousands of tiny paper cuts or lacerations from sandpaper. Whatever was used was rough: like hemp rope.

"I don't think this is what killed her," Anko remarked. "I think whatever was used to strangle her was meant to be a restraint. If you killed someone and didn't want anyone to know who she was, what would you remove to make her anonymous?"

"Her fingertips," he answered rather quickly. "Palm prints, too, for that matter. Acid works well for that. Maybe her teeth, too, because of—"

"Dental records?" Anko opened the corpse's mouth. The woman's teeth were still there, but her tongue was gone. "Any idea why somebody would rip out a tongue instead?"

He had no idea. "This woman's ex-ANBU," he informed Anko. "I saw where they ripped off her tattoo."

"Mitarashi." Anko lifted her head to see Ibiki was calling out for her. "I'm going to debrief Ino on what we already know. Think you and that young man can stand post and keep the rubberneckers away until the head of ANBU shows up?"

"You actually called that ghoul!? Ibiki!" She sounded like she was scolding a cat for scratching up a couch. "You know he'll want to quash this, just like he did the _last_ time we found a—"

"Last time?" Sai and Ino said it at the same time, both equally surprised. "There were others?" How many?

Ibiki let loose a slow sigh. "This is confidential, you two. You can't repeat this to anyone." With that, he gave Anko a dirty look for letting a few words slip. "But this is the eighth body we've found in the past two months. Outwardly, every victim has appeared to be a total nobody: a bookstore clerk, a hospital receptionist, a janitor. This is our first ANBU victim that we know of. And that's why I had to place a call to the higher brass this time."

"Do you think they're connected?" Ino sounded very worried. "Are they all women?"

"Women, men, young, old: that doesn't seem to matter," Anko answered. "We even found a ten-year-old last week."

"Do they all have the same M.O.?" Sai asked. "Missing tongue, ligature marks, multiple lacerations to the body?" He received a slow nod. "That sounds like…"

…

It sounded like a serial killer. And the more Ibiki talked in whispers with the Hokage while everyone else sat in the office, waiting to talk, Sai couldn't shake the feeling Kakashi already knew about it.

Sitting in a chair far to Kakashi's left was Mikuro. Sai realized this was the first time he'd ever seen that man outside of uniform. Since Mikuro was leading the program now, it meant he had to retire from active duty. He sat there in a black shirt with a rust-colored jacket and khaki trousers.

There were a few similarities in his appearance to the man Sai once served, but those similarities were superficial: as one would expect from two men who came from the same shinobi clan.

Eventually, Mikuro realized Sai was looking at him and squinted in disapproval beneath his glasses. Sai quickly averted his gaze.

"Do you know him?" Ino whispered. Her tone had become way more professional and a bit more awkward, like she still wasn't comfortable talking about their disaster of a date just yet. A potential mission, though, she could handle. "Who is he?"

"Kido's replacement," Sai explained in a hushed tone. Ino's nose wrinkled a bit at that. Thinking about Tsumiki Kido and what he'd done to Sakura made her skin crawl.

Kakashi turned his chair around to face the window rather than the people in front of him. "Ibiki, Anko, Ino? I need the three of you to wait outside."

"ANBU matters?" Anko asked. Kakashi nodded. "Okay. We get it." She put her hand on Ino's back and patted it. "Come on, princess. Let's take a walk."

Ino turned around, giving Sai a worried look, but was escorted outside regardless.

Sai had a bad feeling about this. If Konoha Intelligence was told to wait outside and _he_ was permitted to stay here with Kakashi and Mikuro—

' _This is probably no ordinary serial killer._ '

Kakashi used him for two major intelligence missions in the past year: Kido's case and Gengo's case. One of those had been a triumph; the other, a disaster. This sense of dread was starting to feel a bit too familiar.

"This is the eighth one since we launched the initiative, Mikuro. Do you _still_ want to keep quiet?"

"There's a tradeoff either way," Mikuro replied. Since his Hokage was standing, he chose to do the same. "Let's say we keep quiet. It means the public are oblivious to the fact there's a murderer on the loose. They'll continue living in a dangerous bubble of ignorance, but I still think that's preferable to alerting the village.

"If we warn the village and tell them how to take precautions against the killer, he'll realize we know about him. If we're lucky, he'll make clumsy mistakes and be easier to catch, but that's unlikely. It's more likely that he'd run or stop until he's impossible to find.

"The last thing this village needs right now is to panic. If we continue to lay low and be discrete about this, then maybe we can figure this out before he even realizes we're on to him."

"It's your people who keep dying, Mikuro," Kakashi murmured. "It's _your_ call."

' _Your people? What does he mean? Ibiki said the victims were mostly civilians with low profiles._ '

"They're ex-Foundation?" Sai asked.

Mikuro grimaced, taking off his glasses so he could rub his eyes. "Astute thing, aren't you? Yes. Yes, they were."

Kakashi gestured for both men to sit, so they did as commanded. "I'm not surprised that Ibiki and Anko think most of these people were civilians. That was intentional. The two of us worked really hard to make sure those new identities were as nonthreatening as possible. We didn't want people to be afraid of their new neighbors."

"But you want me to be part of this investigation. Is that it?"

"Yes, Sai," Kakashi confirmed. "I know that you and Ino have worked well together in the past. If you think you can trust her to investigate this discretely, I'm fine with the two of you partnering up. You're also free to work with Ibiki and Anko on the investigation. However, what we just discussed in here is confidential. You find the killer, but you keep this fact to yourself."

"Yes, sir. Of course, sir."

"This does also mean we'll need you to spy on the other former Foundation members. If you find anything, report it back to us."

"Of course. I understand."

Mikuro slowly eased himself out of his chair and made his way toward the door. "I swear," Sai heard him murmur under his breath. "It's times like these I wish we still had a Military Police Force."

"You know why we don't," Kakashi replied, only to hear the door slam.

Now that he was alone with the Hokage, Sai was full of questions. "Lord Sixth? There's something I want to ask you."

"I think I can guess what this is about. You want to know why I promoted that guy."

Sai nodded his head.

"It's because I knew some of the older Foundation operatives would have a hard time adjusting. Returning to ANBU is tempting for them because it's all they know. I thought that promoting a familiar face would make it easier for them to gradually integrate with the rest of ANBU. He cares about you guys more than he lets on."

"So he's my commander for this mission? I report what I find to him if it's Foundation-related?"

It didn't sit well with him, and it went beyond Mikuro's family ties. All Sai could think about was how Anko referred to him as _that ghoul_ and how he seemed a little _too_ quick to drop the idea of telling the public about the killer.

"What if my evidence points back toward him?"

"I doubt it will," Kakashi insisted, "but if that turns out to be the case, you tell me and only me."


	6. 5 - Being a Good Friend

**Author's Notes:** Thank you for reading Part 1 (Dogwood) of _Sai Hiden_. Part 2 (Peony) contains 6. I'm presently in the process of writing the draft version of Part 3 (Arbutus) and proofreading the other five Part 2 chapters, so you have plenty of updates to look forward to.

I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for all the positive reviews I've received for Part 1! Your kind words are what have motivated me to pick up the momentum and push this story forward…even though I'm currently juggling two jobs, a fandom-inspired bath bomb blog, and three other writing projects at present!

It's nice to know that there are so many of you who enjoy Sai and Ino as much as I do. It's even nicer to know that my nit-picky attention to canon (even more than merely referencing _Sakura Hiden_ , which will become increasingly important as the story progresses) hasn't gone unappreciated or unnoticed.

You're the type of readers any author would be grateful to have. I just wanted to voice my appreciation before we jump into Part 2 (Peony).

I'm curious, though, considering it's going to be several more chapters before you get an answer to this: who do you think the killer is and what is their motive? I'd love to know your theories!

So, without further ado, let's jump into the next part and see what _Ino's_ been up to!

 **…**

 **PART 2 - PEONY**

 **…**

Once a week, Ino and Chōji went grocery shopping together. He originally asked her if she wanted to do that after Inoichi died. Things had become increasingly lonely at home with her mother seldom around, so she appreciated the company.

Chōji and Shikamaru had an unbreakable brotherly bond. While Ino always felt like a sister to those two, seeing as they'd all known each other their whole lives, she was starting to realize what a remarkable lifeline Akimichi Chōji actually was.

A long time ago, she'd realized that he was the most kindhearted person she knew, so she was thrilled to hear everything was going great for him these days. He loved his job, he felt more secure about his body than he ever had, and he'd found himself a cool girlfriend who thought he was every bit as awesome as Ino and Shikamaru did. He'd never been happier.

Karui had talked recently about the possibility of moving to Konoha so she and Chōji could try cohabitating in an apartment. Ino thought it was a great idea and that more couples should try that.

Too many people rushed into relationships, only to discover far too late that they couldn't stand living together.

"It'll be fun when Karui moves here," Ino insisted as she looked over the fresh produce. "I'd love to get to know her better, since you make her sound so great. We've never had much of a chance to chat or hang out. Do you think she'll miss Kumogakure?"

"Truth be told, she said she'd miss the food most," Chōji admitted. That suddenly explained why he wanted to visit the international grocery store rather than the one that had the freshest seafood. "I want to try making one of her favorite dishes as a surprise, provided I can find all the right ingredients."

' _You are such a good boyfriend, Chōji_ ,' Ino thought. ' _No wonder she's head over heels for you._ '

Chōji stopped at the spices section, in awe of the variety. "Cassia bark, black cardamom, white peppercorn, cumin…" It was like watching him go through a candy aisle as a kid. Ino chuckled. "What? Don't judge me!"

"I'm not!" Ino chuckled and reached over to grab her own set of spices. ' _Cooking for one,_ ' she thought glumly.

If Sai hadn't made an utter disaster of himself last week, then he probably would have acted like his usual self instead of avoiding her. She could tell he was embarrassed, considering all he ever talked about with her in private was the serial killer case—which she couldn't even tell _Chōji_ about.

Sai was keeping his distance otherwise. She wished he'd give her a chance to apologize.

' _Let me make it up to you_ ,' she wanted to say. ' _Let me invite you over to my place for dinner, where it's okay for you to say whatever's on your mind. No false pretenses. No pretending to be somebody else. I just want to get to know you: awkward parts and all._ '

"Lemongrass, chili oil, coconut milk, shrimp, oyster mushrooms—tom yum soup, Ino?"

"Huh? Oh…" Her face turned pink. "I ordered it on my date last week, but I didn't get a chance to try it." Chōji looked more than a tad confused. "Can I tell you something?"

"Sure." That cart was only halfway full. Everything smelled delicious: mostly spicy or savory with herbal undertones. So many peppers…

"That date was a train-wreck," Ino confessed. "I don't know who gave Sai one of those sleazy pickup books, but I'm gonna kill them. He brought it along and kept going back to it for tips when things stopped going well."

"Was the food bad? Karui and I loved the rama duck and the—"

"I have no idea if it was any good or not. I was so upset that I couldn't eat and Sai wandered off. I think I embarrassed him." She knew she said some pretty hurtful things, and she wished she could take them back. It kept ringing in her head, though:

 ** _"If this is how you treat girls, then maybe you shouldn't date. Ever!"_**

 ** _"We all make mistakes. I'm sorry I turned out to be one."_**

"I think I screwed up, too. I lost my temper and said something really hurtful." Ino knew it was one of her biggest faults. "I have a real knack for alienating people, don't I? I even cut down my best friend when we were kids, just because we liked the same boy."

She and Sakura had barely been on speaking terms for anything other than insults for years. They were almost thirteen years old before their friendship began to recover. Ino blamed herself for it. She'd warded off Sakura's bullies in preschool and helped the girl regain her confidence, only to use those same insults to tear the façade apart and leave Sakura insecure again.

"And I pretty much told him to do us all a favor and stay alone forever."

' _I shouldn't turn the people I care about into my emotional punching bags._ '

"Ino's Acid Tongue," Chōji murmured. Ino blinked in confusion. What did he say? "That's what Shikamaru and I used to call it when you took the filter off and let loose on somebody. Nobody can cut a person down quite like you can."

She wasn't sure how to take that.

"It's a great gift, provided you aim it at the right people." Chōji 's smile turned sheepish as he rubbed at the beginnings of his small beard. "But if you don't want your cold war with Sai to last as long as the one you had with Sakura, you probably should apologize."

"I want to! I just don't know if I'll ever have an opportunity to do so. Every conversation we have these days is about—oh."

Sai was running errands, too: picking something up at the pharmacy counter. Ino felt a bit of heat rush through her face, but her feet felt frozen in place.

' _He has a girl with him_.'

To Sai's left was a ginger-haired girl about an entire head shorter than him. She was wearing a tight pair of navy pants with an oversized mustard-yellow sweater. The collar was so stretched and loose that Ino could make out the straps to the dark blue sports bra the girl wore underneath.

Sai said something and smiled. It looked sincere, too. The girl handed something to him with a faint expression of pride on her face. Needlepoint, it looked like.

"Who on earth…?" Ino took a few steps closer, trying to figure out who this person was. She could have sworn she'd never seen this girl before. "Hi, Sai," she called out, trying to act friendly.

' _Keep it cool, Ino. Don't make this more awkward than it has to be. Apologizing in public's not gonna work._ '

"Hello, Beautiful," Sai replied. When he saw Chōji, he gave a polite bow of acknowledgment.

Chōji waved back and proceeded to the checkout line, completely forgetting that Ino's stuff was mixed in there with his. He didn't want to be around in case more sparks flew.

"Who's your friend?" She'd ease into it, nice and slow. Up close, she was becoming increasingly nervous about this. That girl had an adorable face, complete with dimples and freckles. It was almost a shame she had to cover most of it up with those big dorky-looking glasses.

"We're friends now?" the girl asked quizzically, staring up at Sai. "Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"Ino, this is Anzu. We used to work together."

Oh. That girl was ex-Foundation: some other soul who somehow managed to survive Danzō's tyranny.

"And apparently we're not just colleagues, but actual _friends_ ," Anzu piped in, holding out a hand for Ino to shake. "You must be a friend of his, too?"

"Yeah…" Ino shook the girl's hand, trying to size her up. Now that she knew this girl was somebody Sai used to work with, that didn't make her a potential rival. Anzu wouldn't get in the way, in other words. It meant she could be nice to her.

"I actually think you two might get along," Sai admitted. His smile looked way more at ease. "You see, Anzu and her brother just opened a craft store a few blocks from your flower shop. She likes to embroider, crochet, and knit."

"You know who also likes to knit? _Hinata_. Maybe I can introduce her to Anzu later."

' _Though for real. What the heck kind of name is Apricot?_ '

"That would be great." She could hear a bit of gratitude in his voice. "Part of the reason I've done as well as I have is because of the friends I made. That said, do you think you could introduce her to Sakura, too?"

"Sakura?"

"Out of all the friends I made, she's helped me the most."

Before Ino could ask Sai if that was a passive-aggressive dig at her, Anzu tugged on his sleeve. "Yes?"

"There's too many options to choose from on the tea aisle," she remarked matter-of-factly. "I'm requesting assistance in picking a good brand."

"Go ahead," Ino mumbled, waving goodbye. "We'll talk later."


	7. 6 - New Neighbors

Ino knew she wasn't supposed to out a former Foundation member, even if she found out about one. The fact that Sai had entrusted her with Anzu's information meant he still trusted her, which was a relief. She may have hurt his feelings, but he clearly still saw her as a friend. It meant she could still fix this somehow.

The best step in the right direction, she figured, would involve introducing some of her best gal pals to this girl and give her a warm welcome to the neighborhood.

Originally, Ino planned on only telling Sakura about Anzu, mostly because Sai had specifically asked Ino to introduce the two. However, when Sakura asked if Hinata could come along because she was having engagement jitters, Ino conceded.

It was Hinata's turn to pick a restaurant, anyway. She originally started with, "maybe ramen," but eventually worked her way up to, "maybe sushi?" Sushi it was. The three girls split a whole boat's worth of sashimi and decided to divide and conquer.

"We haven't met for a ladies' lunch in ages!" Sakura remarked, putting a piece of sushi in her mouth. "It's almost as good as a date."

"Not quite," Hinata chimed in. "But as much as I like ramen, I sometimes wish Naruto-kun would pick something else, just once. I've eaten at Ichiraku so often lately that my favorite jacket doesn't fit anymore."

"It's all the salt," Sakura explained. "And the starch. You might want to tell him to cut back on it, too. Wouldn't it be terrible if he had a heart attack at thirty?"

"Can we talk about something other than relationships?" Ino grumbled as she took another swig of beer. "I'm sick of it."

Aside from Tenten, this made Ino the only girl out of their whole gang who didn't have a boyfriend or fiancé. Even nerdy, frizzy-haired Shiho in the Cryptanalysis Corps had a nice gold ring on her finger.

Ino was happy that everyone else was happy, but she was still jealous. Things were just so slow-moving on her front.

"Sorry," Hinata apologized. "So, um…what's up?"

"Is this a moral support lunch?" Sakura asked. "I'm guessing things with Sai didn't go so great?" Ino narrowed her eyes. Thankfully, Sakura took the hint. "Right, right. No relationship talk. So what's this really about?"

"I met one of Sai's old work buddies at the grocery store yesterday," Ino explained. None of these girls were dense. They knew what that meant. "She's around our age and could probably use a friend or two. I was thinking after we eat, we could check out her new store."

"What kind of store?" Sakura raised an eyebrow. Out of everyone present, she'd encountered members of the Foundation more regularly. Not all of them were secretly nice like Sai. If anything, Sai was an exception. Most of those people were pretty vicious at their core. "I'm guessing weapons?"

"Nope. It's a craft store." Both girls looked a tad surprised upon hearing that revelation. "Anzu likes to knit and crochet, so I thought she and Hinata would hit it off."

She'd expected Hinata to do what she typically did and shy away. She knew her Hyūga friend hated to be put on the spot. Instead, Hinata surprised her. There was an excited glimmer in her eyes.

"I'd love to meet her!" she decided. "Where's the store?"

…

Ino wasn't sure what she'd expected to find when she opened the door to Anzu's store. Maybe it'd be something minimalistic with very little decoration. That wasn't what she found.

From floor to ceiling, two out of four walls were covered in a rainbow of different yarns. Some even glittered when the light caught the fibers. Some were thick, some were thin, some were frilly and almost lace-like. She didn't know where to even begin.

Another wall was dedicated to giant bookcases of sewing, knitting, quilting, and crochet patterns. A young man was on a ladder, adding more patterns to the selection. Everything was done in alphabetical order and categorized by the type of project. Ino was more than a tad impressed by the golden twin dragon embroidery sparkling on the back of his jacket.

Near the store window were samples of Anzu's handiwork: a cross-stitched picture of Hokage Mountain, several needlepoints of various flowers, and some incredibly cute sweaters and scarves. "Ino, look!" Sakura called out. "It's crocheted to look like magnolia flowers! How do you even _do_ that?"

"It's not as hard as it looks," Hinata whispered to her. "I could teach you how to do that later, if you want." Sakura just laughed and said something about how the only stitches she was any good at were surgical ones.

In the center of the store, Ino found a series of oversized beanbag chairs, most of which were also embroidered in at least one location. A sign indicated that all things seen in the store were for sale, even the furniture. " _Ask us about custom orders!"_ another sign announced.

' _It looks perfectly normal in here._ ' Somehow, that left her feeling relieved. Anzu had seemed a tad off at the store, but maybe that was just—

"Ino-san. Hello."

Ino wondered why on earth she kept forgetting this girl was so tiny. There were twelve-year-olds taller than her. "Hi, Anzu. I wanted to introduce you to two of my other friends. This is Haruno Sakura, and Hyūga Hinata. We've known each other since we were little girls."

"That's sweet. I have someone to introduce you to as well. Brother? Can you come down here?"

"One second."

His voice was a low bass tone, the sort that Ino could feel resonate in her rib cage if he spoke in close proximity to her.

' _Gengo had a similar quality to his voice,_ ' she noted, but there was nothing hypnotic about Anzu's "brother". Still, she had to admit he was a striking fellow: long golden hair, eyes the color of a tangerine, an almost tiger-like face…

"This is Nigai: my brother and business partner."

Nigai bowed before the ladies. "The pleasure is all mine. Thank you for welcoming us to the neighborhood."

"No problem," Sakura spoke up. "Do you both like crafts, or—"

"I'm just humoring her," Nigai admitted, putting a hand on Anzu's back. "If she hadn't insisted on trying to run a business, I'd be doing something else."

"I'm not exactly mathematically inclined," Anzu piped up, giving the girls a rather Sai-like smile. "So he agreed to help me."

"That's very nice of you! If you weren't running a store with your sister, Nigai-san…" Sakura had to take a chance at this. "What would you be doing instead?"

"ANBU, naturally," he said without a beat. "Haruno Sakura, right?" As soon as she confirmed that was who she was, his smile widened. "You did a great thing, exposing Kido for what he was. Nobody liked that bastard."

"I really admire your sweater, Anzu _-chan_!" Hinata admitted. "Did you make that yourself?"

That's all it took. Ino had to fight back the urge to laugh because those two were quickly lost in their own little world. She'd always found the sewing part of kunoichi preschool to be the dullest. Every time their teacher covered it, she zoned out. And yet a part of her supposed that the world was such an interesting place because people's talents and interests varied.

She was glad one of her friends had found a common interest with somebody who could really use a friend.

"I helped with the Kido case, too," Ino admitted. She held out her hand and introduced herself. "Yamanaka Ino, at your service."

Nigai smiled, taking the hand and giving it a light kiss. "Oh no, my dear. I'm at yours."

"Um…N-Nigai _-san_?" Ino tried to contain her inner glee. "You know nobody does that outside of _movies_ , right?" He let go.

…

"Well, well, well. Isn't _he_ suave?" Sakura remarked sarcastically once they left the store. Hinata had stayed behind, wanting to continue talking about crafts with her new friend. "I think he's into you."

"Oh, hush. He probably saw somebody do that on TV and thought girls were into that sort of thing." It was like Sai and that dumb book.

"You thought he was cute, though, didn't you?"

"Well, if we're being honest…" Ino chuckled. "His pants were so tight. It's like I was getting a sneak preview of what he's packing."

"Yeah. I wouldn't have minded if he climbed up that ladder again," Sakura joked. "Just saying. That's a _gorgeous_ man. You really think he and Anzu are platonic?"

"Yes." She didn't even miss a beat. She just knew.


	8. 7 - Dead End

Considering he was running on only two hours and six minutes' worth of sleep, Sai was privately relieved he'd only nodded off in the therapy session twice.

Although he had plenty of experience leading double lives in the past, he felt he now had a third one on top of everything else, possibly even a fourth.

' _I'm the same old Sai with Sakura and the others. Nothing's wrong with that Sai. Everything's fine. Normal. Typical._

 _'I'm spying on other ex-Foundation members for Mikuro. I'm keeping an open ear to their concerns and open eyes on their behaviors, but I feel like a traitor. I don't even know if Mikuro is someone I should be trusting._

 _'I'm spying on Mikuro for Kakashi because I don't trust him. The more I hear, the more I suspect that strings were pulled to get him this promotion. Kakashi isn't telling me everything, but he's Hokage. He doesn't owe me anything._

 _'I'm part of a secret investigation with Konoha Intelligence, but I have to keep the fact the victims are all Foundation members a secret. It's like trying to swim to shore with one arm tied behind my back._

 _'That's four stories I have to keep straight. If I mess up the details on even one, I'll—_ '

Anzu was sharing with the group today, talking about how her first week at her craft store was successful. They had to completely restock one type of yak yarn and the kunoichi preschool headmistress approached her, curious to see if she'd be willing to teach an embroidery elective at the end of the semester. Things were looking up for her, in other words. For the first time in her life, she was happy.

She was also loud enough that several other people could hold private conversations in the back of the room.

"How's Hinoto doing, Hyō?" Sai heard Kinoto whisper. "I know you've been assigned to the same squad."

"Not well," Hyō whispered back. "She's throwing herself into her work. Withdrawing, even. Considering how many people have been doing that lately, I have concerns."

"Shit," Kinoto hissed. "She used to be one of our finest."

"Tanuki bugged out, too," Hyō added. "He's taking his research and going off the grid. He's afraid people think he worked with Kido."

"That's a valid fear."

"Is whatever you're discussing something the whole group can hear?" Everyone lifted their heads and turned to face their therapist. Leiji cleared his throat and tapped his pen on the clipboard. "If not, please wait until the session is over. Some of you may have noticed that a few people are no longer among us."

Whether he meant dead or stopping therapy, Sai wasn't sure. He just knew _no longer among us_ was oftentimes used as a euphemism for dead. Judging from the somber tone in Leiji's voice, he was fairly sure that's what he meant.

"Has anyone seen Shigaraki Tanuki this week?" Leiji asked. "I could have sworn I heard two of you talking about him a moment ago." Nobody spoke up. "Tsumiki Kido turned over his name to the Torture & Interrogation Force. Morino Ibiki would like to speak with him about his possible involvement in the Uchiha Sasuke impersonation case and the Haruno Sakura kidnapping."

In theory, somebody could have spoken up and given away Tanuki's location, assuming they were careful about it. Everyone in that room had the same silence seal placed upon their tongues. The seal didn't apply to betraying Kido or Tanuki, but there was a catch.

Tanuki wasn't a member of Kido's research group. Kido was simply trying to point as many fingers as possible at other people so he could reduce his sentence. That man lived off instilling fear in others, but didn't respond well to experiencing fear firsthand.

' _Kido, you spineless prick,_ ' Sai thought. ' _It's pointless. They aren't going to talk about Tanuki to an outsider._ '

"Kido's full of shit," Kinoto finally remarked firmly. "Tanuki wasn't involved." And that was truly all he could say.

Talking about Kido was fine. None of the surviving Foundation members had Kido's seal. Most of Kido's subordinates chose death over incarceration once their plan was discovered. And if they didn't choose death themselves, Kido chose it for them. It was a horrible way to go, but at least it was over.

Talking about Tanuki was different. Speaking ill of him would incriminate a very dangerous ghost who could still cause a person to faint if they even attempted to speak. Tanuki was tapped for one of Danzō's special projects, so that was probably why he decided to go rogue.

"If he wasn't involved," Leiji responded in that calming, slightly patronizing tone, "then he has nothing to fear from Konoha Intelligence."

' _Aside from torture,_ ' Sai thought morbidly. Ibiki had shown him some of the devices his squad used to pry information out of people. ' _But even with their worst tactics, they wouldn't be able to crack someone like Tanuki. He's too indoctrinated._ '

"Is that what you plan to tell us every time one of us is suspected of a crime?" Kinoto asked. "That we have nothing to fear? It's going to lead to torture, and it's going to be fruitless."

"What makes you say that, Kinoto?" That same tone. Leiji meant it to sound soothing, but it wasn't. It only came across as condescending. "Does Tanuki have something to hide?"

"Whether he wants to cooperate with an investigation or not, it will end the same way," Kinoto reiterated. "It will escalate to torture because he _can't_ talk. None of us can, and no amount of violence is going to change that. If we're accused of something, our innocence or guilt is moot. It may as well be a death sentence."

"You sound a tad guilty yourself," Leiji warned, narrowing his eyes. "Is there something you want to say?"

"There is, and it's something I _can_ say. Hinoto was right about these sessions being a waste of our time. I don't feel any better, nor do I feel any safer than I did when our program received word that Danzō-sama was murdered."

"Killed," Leiji corrected coldly. "He was killed."

"He was _murdered_ ," Kinoto repeated, this time louder than before.

This was bad. People were beginning to whisper to each other again, stoic expressions turning worried.

"I don't blame Tanuki for wanting to keep his head low," he continued. "Our people are disappearing, and this new regime has already made it clear it's okay to kill us. Uchiha Sasuke served virtually no time in prison for killing a Hokage elect, just on account of who Danzō-sama was."

"That isn't why the Sixth Hokage agreed to free him. Sasuke-san is the—"

"I'm not coming back, either. I'm going to see Hinoto and tell her she was right. I think she deserves to hear that, considering how often you belittled her in this skull-scraping circlejerk." Kinoto bowed out of respect to the others in the room, even taking a brief pause to put a hand on Sai's shoulder.

"Please reconsider this," Sai whispered to him. "The village is only trying to help."

"Sorry, kid," Kinoto apologized, "but I don't believe that anymore. Can we talk later, someplace private?"

"Of course, senpai. Take care of yourself."

With a heavy heart, Sai watched Kinoto leave the room, just as Hinoto had done the session before. There was a long silence in the room as people stared at the door. Some half expected Kinoto to come back. Others were contemplating abandoning the session, too.

Leiji had to take a moment to compose himself again. He cleared his throat, took a sip of water, and returned to his clipboard. "Please don't let his behavior discourage the rest of you from continuing this program. We only have it available because we want to help."

But Kinoto didn't believe that. Considering how many people in the group had withdrawn since the start of the program, Sai could tell they didn't believe it, either. There was an animosity that wasn't there before: a sort of wariness and dread building up inside.

' _They don't trust their village anymore. They're afraid of it._ '

"Remember," Leiji repeated, holding one finger up to indicate he was about to bestow words of wisdom to the group. "It's never too late to assimilate."

That had been his slogan for the group since day one: an innocent-sounding rhyme that apparently rubbed most of his patients the wrong way. It implied something was wrong with them, which they already knew but hated to be reminded of.

"And some of you are making significant progress. Look at Anzu, for example. She's already made a friend."

" _Three_ friends," Anzu corrected him, and then went back to her needlepoint. Sai recognized this week's project as the Hyūga clan crest. This new friend, he suspected, was Hinata.

"Though, sadly, some of you will never experience that joy." Leiji put the clipboard down and took off his glasses. He looked far more sincere without them. "We had a death among us this week."

Sai knew that there had been a death. Two days ago, a body was found on the outskirts of Senju Park. Upon closer inspection, he realized this was more than a familiar face from his dark past, but someone he saw regularly within the therapy group.

It was Gin: the boy who said that joining a genin team was a waste of his time.

There had been something particularly strange about the corpse, as parts of it appeared to be turning into ash. No other parts of the body showed signs of overheating or being (for lack of a better term) roasted. However, the ashy parts crumbled as easily as the ashes in a used cigarette butt.

Ibiki and Anko were going over active profiles and recently identified the boy as a relatively new genin: a replacement in a team that lost a member during the Fourth Great Shinobi War. To them, he was just some orphan: some sad nobody.

And Sai had to hide the fact Gin had been like him.

Mikuro may have headed ANBU rather than the Foundation, and Gin was too young for ANBU, but Sai followed orders and notified Mikuro of the death anyway. It wasn't lost on Sai that he'd kept a surprisingly stoic face for a man who just received word that a child died.

' _I don't know what to believe anymore.'_

 ** _Are you losing yourself?_**

Just thinking those words brought back that awful memory: Gengo's hypnotic voice, all that crippling doubt about his place in this world, that sense of bleakness and shattered faith.

"Gin committed suicide earlier this week," Leiji announced to the group. "Apparently, the stress of adjusting to everyday life was too much for him."

' _Suicide? It wasn't suicide…_ '

"If any of you are feeling depressed or contemplating ending your lives, we can arrange for a private scheduling to talk in private. I want to remind all of you that this is a safe place. Nobody judges you in here. Therapy is a place where you can be yourselves without having to wear a mask. We truly _do_ wish to help you. So please, help us help you. Don't give up like Gin did. There is hope…"

It sounded hollow: empty.

Everyone reached to grab their things, knowing the session was virtually over. One by one, they left. Sai heard some of the adults offer to pair up with younger members, just to make sure they were fine, but he also noted the ones who said they wanted to spend some time alone.


	9. 8 - Pulling Teeth

He needed a moment to collect his thoughts before he reconvened with Anko. The room was silent because no one else was in it. All the chairs were empty, no longer occupied by hesitant and uncomfortable Foundation members.

Talking about their feelings was alien. Nobody did that under the old regime. Even admitting you still had personal feelings meant that you didn't fully commit to the program. It was a sign of failure, and nobody dared to confess those failures.

Sai wondered if Leiji even understood that. Sakura had told him before that in order to help a patient, one first had to understand the patient.

' _Is he even making an effort? I've felt more growth in my side conversations with Anko than I have in these sessions._ '

Not that Mitarashi Anko was anyone's idea of a therapist. Still, talking to her was easy. She was nonjudgmental and never pressured for more information than Sai felt comfortable sharing. Anko didn't need to know his entire sob story in order to work with him. Sai could tell her whatever he wanted at his own pace, no pressure.

' _Am I losing my faith in this program? Am I losing myself again?_ '

Leiji made it sound like the easiest path to take would be that of assimilation: fitting in to societal norms Sai knew so little about…and yet Sai knew those norms better than his old comrades.

' _I made more progress with Sakura and Naruto than I made in here. I'm starting to tune Leiji-sensei out._ ' Therapy was doing nothing for him, nor did it appear to be anything useful for the vast majority of Leiji's patients. ' _They're frustrated. So am I._ '

But how else would he be able to keep an eye on all of them, as ordered? Whether or not his heart was in it, he'd have to do what he'd done so many times before and give this man lip service. Sai could pretend to listen and nod his head as though he agreed, then parrot back whatever words he assumed Leiji wanted to hear. He wouldn't mean them.

And maybe later, provided he wasn't overstepping his bounds with his friendship, he could ask Sakura for some real advice.

' _I'm only sticking around because I have to protect them._ '

Hyō and the others were far from being his friends, but they were as close a thing to family as he'd ever have. These were his brothers and sisters now. Family looked out for family.

"I can't take it anymore!"

Sai recognized that voice as his therapist's. Silently, he moved out of his chair and made his way toward the hallway.

About two doors down, he could see Leiji talking to somebody. He appeared far more frazzled than he ever let his patients see during sessions. One of his eyes twitched and his fingers clutched the clipboard tight enough for each knuckle to turn white. He rapidly paced back and forth, murmuring little curses under his slit-thin lips.

Another familiar presence was in the hall with him: Councilor Homura.

"Sit down," Homura told Leiji. "And take a couple of deep breaths. This is unbecoming of a physician, _especially_ a psychotherapist. You're too old and too distinguished to get away with this kind of infantile behavior."

There was a soft familiarity in Homura's tone, but Sai wasn't too surprised. He knew Leiji's surname was also Mitokado. The two were related somehow, though it was common knowledge that Homura had no sons. At his closest, Leiji would be a nephew.

"When you said you found a therapy job for me, this isn't what I thought you meant," Leiji growled. It wasn't simply a grumble, but a full growl: like a hungry dog protecting its food. "I was hoping I'd work under Haruno Sakura. You made it sound like it was critical that _somebody_ you trusted do that, and _I'm_ your—"

"Ssssssssh." Homura put a hand on the younger man's shoulder and forced him to sit next to him on a nearby bench. "After everything that transpired with Tsumiki Kido, this was deemed more important. Sakura has everything under control in her program. These people need you."

"After everything I've reported back to you, I'm a little surprised you can still call them _people_ ," Leiji countered. "If I'd worked under Haruno-san, I'd at least be able to see the difference I'd be making. I could be changing those children's lives for the better. Uncle, these Foundation people are already dead inside. They're lost causes, simply going through the motions without making any true progress."

Sai took a deep breath, feeling another emotion bubble up inside him. When he originally quashed this feeling, he'd felt some relief. Once some of his old feelings started to return, he privately hoped anger wouldn't be one of them. Anger was what drove people like Sasuke to repeatedly make stupid decisions and hurt innocent people. Anger turned men rash, irrational, and reckless. He wished to be none of those things.

But in that moment, he equally wanted to yank Leiji by the ponytail and knock him to the ground. It took a great amount of restraint to contain that urge.

' _Dead inside? He truly believes that?_ '

"Well, try harder!" Homura snapped. "I understand this is your first time as a therapist, Leiji, but let me assure you I can also make sure it's your last. If you can't help them, then I at least expect you to ensure they don't get any worse."

"They're covering for each other now," Leiji warned. "One of them's gone AWOL. Nobody knows where Tanuki is, but Kinoto was a little too quick to say he had nothing to do with Kido. I'm telling you; they're building barriers and sticking to their own. They're planning something."

"Koharu and I were afraid of that…"

"Can we pull the program?" Leiji asked, a bit too much hopefulness in his voice. "I've told you it's a dead end. And they're congregating. I'm not sure what they're doing, but I'm seeing little cliques form in the sessions and I'm really worried about it."

Homura shook his head. "We can't do that. Even if you think the therapy's moot, it provides better visibility to the Council on their present actions. Even though these people are used to living their lives in silence and shadows, we need to know what they're doing at all times."

"But—"

"Encourage the ones who walked out to come back. If they don't comply, we may need to investigate further."

Sai felt a tap on his shoulder. Out of instinct, he reached for a kunai and held the person who touched him against the wall. The offender wasn't an enemy or even one of Homura and Leiji's cronies. She was nothing more than a middle aged orderly, now staring at Sai with big, terrified eyes. Quickly, he let her go. "Sorry."

"I…I was only trying to find out if you were lost," she simpered. "You looked—"

"Were you eavesdropping on us?!" Leiji snapped, perking up his head. He got up and stormed over. For once, his face wasn't a mask. Sai felt this may have been the first time he'd seen Leiji's real face in all its unfriendly, exhausted honesty. "You can leave, Meiko. We'll handle this." The orderly ran off in a panic.

His eyes narrowed from beneath his glasses. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Sai?"

"I overheard you in the hall," Sai answered. Lying wasn't going to help him here. "And I wanted to talk to you."

"The session's _over_. We don't meet again until—"

"Gin didn't kill himself," he continued. Now it was his turn to give Leiji a disapproving look. "His murder is being investigated by Konoha Intelligence right now. Why did you lie to the group about that?"

"We don't have time for this," Homura interrupted, putting a hand on his nephew's shoulder to drag him away. "If you want to talk to Leiji after hours, set up an appointment like everyone else. We're leaving."

He seemed tense. _Far_ too tense. And even though Leiji was whispering to Homura, Sai caught one part of it by reading lips.

"I don't know what he's talking about. He _did_ kill himself…didn't he?"


	10. 9 - Suspicions

It was Sai's first time reporting to that office since Danzō occupied it. It worried him a bit to see how little remodeling had taken place in there. Kido had changed the décor a bit, placing travel posters for other villages up to brighten the room and promote a more "international" presence.

Those were gone, once again replaced with the all-too-familiar traditional paintings Sai remembered from his old ANBU days. The room was brighter, though. Danzō used to leave the curtains shut, but Mikuro left them wide open so his two potted plants—his only contribution to the room—could get enough sunlight. Sai recognized them by their smells: rosemary and some kind of mint.

"I didn't know you enjoyed gardening," Sai remarked. He bent over to pull a leaf off each plant and rub its fragrant oil between his fingertips. It was a soothing scent.

"I'm indifferent to it," Mikuro remarked without so much as lifting his head. He was in the middle of reviewing a report in a thick binder. By thickness alone, Sai estimated that report was approximately eighty to a hundred pages long. "My best friend gave me those as a Rinne Festival gift."

"That was nice of you to keep them."

"Supposedly, rosemary's good for pain relief and peppermint makes it easier to concentrate. I figured it couldn't hurt to put them in here, seeing as it's where I spend most of my time." Mikuro put the report down and looked at Sai. "Besides, my friend asks about the plants every time he sees me. I'd have to be a total ass to throw them out."

' _Instead of a partial one_.' Sai kept that comment to himself. "Did you know Councilor Homura put one of his relatives in charge of our therapy sessions? He's been reporting back to Homura-sama and thinks we're planning something." Mikuro didn't seem surprised. He had that same poker face Sai was so used to seeing, and that worried him. "This doesn't surprise you?"

Mikuro shook his head. "It did the first time I heard it, but had this exact same conversation with Hinoto two days ago. You know that she and Hyō still report directly to me, right?"

"Yes, sir. Kinoto too." Most of the former Foundation still held positions in ANBU, and had been in there for so long that they lived and breathed the culture. It made sense to put them directly under the new head. It's where they'd been for past heads, too.

"Homura's under investigation," Mikuro remarked. "Kakashi sanctioned it, but Konoha Intelligence doesn't need to know."

Just as they didn't need to know that every single victim of this serial killer thus far had been former Foundation. Sai knew the drill. "Of course, Mikuro-sama. May I ask what ANBU is investigating him for?"

Mikuro removed his glasses so he could rub his fingers over his hands. His cheeks had turned hollow with age and the crow's feet by his eyes were the most pronounced. They seemed even more so without his glasses there to hide them. "Corruption," he answered. "Truth be told, it's long overdue. Some of the older regimes turned a blind eye to it, but…"

He leaned forward, craning his neck to make sure that the door was shut. "Could you crank up the air conditioning for me, Sai?" Sai did as instructed, noting how much extra noise it put into the room. Mikuro also turned on a radio. Anything to drown out the conversation.

"Mitokado Leiji isn't even the first relative he's given a cushy job to. He's done the same thing with Archives, Konoha General Hospital administration, and other municipal positions. It's nepotism: not necessarily illegal, but not exactly smiled upon. We can't do anything about that.

"However, we're combing through the books. A lot of our taxpayer money, and the budget money we receive from the Daimyo each year, is earmarked for specific programs meant to benefit the Hidden Leaf. Some of those projects end up being completed under budget. We haven't found any discrepancies with the major projects, but some of the minor ones that received less funding and attention—things like our parks restoration budget—never see that surplus put back into the pool.

"This thing I have on my desk is a monthly budget report from twelve years ago. Hinoto says it's where she first started finding discrepancies. Conveniently, that's around the time Tsumiki Kido became the Foundation's finance controller and worked as a consultant for the Hokage and Konoha Council. It's also around the time Councilor Homura started performing a series of very expensive renovations to his townhouse."

It was clear what Mikuro suspected, and Sai couldn't really argue with what he'd heard so far. Power had a way of corrupting people, and Homura had held onto that seat since he was twenty-five years old. That was a very, _very_ long time to hold a position.

"I authorized this investigation shortly after Kido was arrested because I wanted to clear the other Foundation members from any involvement. That and it was the first time anyone ever dared to drag a Councilor's name through the muck. Sure, _Homura_ played it off as Kido playing to his fears, but he's no weakling. He's been a Councilor since _I_ was born."

Mikuro wasn't exactly a young man. Sai had to ask, though. "Just how old are you, sir?"

"Over fifty," he answered. "Not that it's really any of your business."

"Is this though? About Homura-sama, I mean?"

"You opened this can of worms, Sai. You're in connivance with us now. I'm really only briefing you on this because I think Homura—or at least that shit-weasel nephew of his—may be involved with the disappearances. Think about it. Foundation members started dying shortly after we launched the investigation. Homura used his authority to put his nephew in charge of the Foundation therapy group, and—"

"Mikuro-sama, you need to know. Leiji suspects we're banding together to do something."

"Yes, well, now you know what it is. We're investigating his uncle. In the old days, the people who attempted that had a tendency to disappear. But we don't _live_ in the old days anymore, do we?"

"Sometimes it feels like we do. There's still a member of the Shimura Clan leading ANBU, and the office looks the same as it did when I was on active duty. It's like you're going out of your way to maintain the façade, like nothing changed." Sure, Kakashi explained to him why Mikuro was doing that, but it still felt a little wrong. "You're doing this to make it easier for them to adapt, aren't you?"

Mikuro slowly nodded his head and reopened the binder. "I am. Can you do me a favor the next time a session rolls around?"

"What do you need, Mikuro-sama?" The Foundation was gone. There was no reason to blindly say "yes" anymore. If he disagreed with Mikuro, he had the right to refuse.

"I know Yamanaka Ino is helping you with the serial killer investigation." It was the first time Sai had ever seen Mikuro smile. He didn't like it one bit. "The next time a session rolls around, can you convince her to book an appointment in an adjacent room and, well, _pick a few brains?_ I want to know if the wolf's among our flock or if Leiji's helping Dear Uncle Homura screw you guys over."

"That's…really not my call, sir." It was Ino's. This meant he'd have to talk to Ino. "I'll try, though…"


	11. 10 - Wish List

Once upon a time, there was a little Yamanaka girl who realized she had an interest in boys. Most of the other girls in Kunoichi Preschool still believed in stupid things like cooties and incompatible interests, but she knew better.

Maybe part of it had to do with the fact that Ino's first two friends were boys, considering Shikamaru and Chōji were the sons of her father's best friends, but she never felt that stark polarity of the sexes the other girls insisted existed. Boys were boys, girls were girls, and they'd only start liking each other when they were older and more complicated feelings came up.

But not for her. She could girly-girl it up in preschool, impressing all the other girls with her talents in flower arrangement and other traditionally feminine arts, and then spend the afternoon bragging to Shikamaru and Chōji that she started ninja school before they did.

Of course, Shikamaru had to be Shikamaru. He pointed out that Kunoichi Preschool was boring, not to mention a waste of time for boys. Ino disagreed. She at least had Chōji convinced it was awesome, seeing as the girls were taught how to make a few basic meals.

By the time the proper Ninja Academy rolled around, Ino had the best penmanship in the entire class. She could take some time to make her characters look more graceful and elegant, while some kids (like Naruto) still struggled to write their names in a legible fashion.

It took very little time to complete written assignments. While she waited for other kids to finish, she had Iruka-sensei's permission to either read or write. Sometimes she'd steal one of her mother's magazines and read up on tips for how to have a perfect date, what not to do if you wanted to keep a boyfriend, and the little things she could do to drive a man crazy (in a good way).

Eventually, Iruka- _sensei_ caught on that Ino wasn't reading age-appropriate material and confiscated the magazines. So she began to write.

From the time she was eight years old, she kept a running tally of all the things she wanted to do once she had a boyfriend. It didn't have to be the same boyfriend, or she could date the same guy forever and marry him. Anything seemed possible then, and she was fairly sure she knew who she wanted.

But Ino never put Sasuke's name in the notebook, just in case she changed her mind about him and started to think somebody else was better. No matter how tempting it was to write down a boy's name, she always kept the boyfriend anonymous. Boyfriends were just as important as best friends, but even those could change. Maybe they'd decide they had nothing in common anymore. Or maybe somebody's feelings would be so hurt over a disagreement that the whole relationship would fall apart.

Maybe they'd fall out of love. Maybe they'd break up. Maybe they'd fight a two-person war against one another until they crashed and burned.

Regardless, that little girl kept her list. Even after she became a genin—and got over her initial disappointment when she found out she was stuck with Shikamaru and Chōji forever—she kept it up.

She was nineteen years old now: working part time with Sakura's child therapy project and part time under Morino Ibiki at Konoha Intelligence. Some of her closest friends were dating. Some, like Naruto and Hinata, were even engaged.

And all Ino had to show for herself was one failed date with Sai and an entire notebook of things little Ino wanted to do with a significant other she'd probably never have.

' _That's not entirely true,_ ' she reminded herself. ' _And it's not really cheating if Sai and I never officially became a couple, right?_ '

She chewed on the edge of her pen and tried to check which box on the notebook she wanted to mark off. She had a date tonight, though it may as well have been a blind one for the amount of information she had about Nigai at the craft store.

All she knew was he was former Foundation, helped Anzu with her store, and expressed some interest in returning to ANBU someday. That wasn't much, and she was fairly sure this was a no-strings-attached sort of thing.

' _Maybe he thinks I'm cute._ ' There was no spark, though.

If Sasuke had ever expressed an interest in Ino during their Academy or genin years, she was sure she would have squealed "yes" a thousand times and bragged to everyone about it for weeks. And she'd felt an attraction toward Sai since she first met him.

She'd been upfront with Nigai about the fact this was more of a blind date than anything else. He didn't give her any flak for it. If anything, he acted as though that was what he expected.

' _Am I using him? Or is he possibly using me as an excuse to get some free time away from his friend?_ '

There was no telling. But hey. At least she got to check something off the list.

Some of the ideas in there were rather pedestrian, such as dinner and a movie. Now that Konohagakure had opened its second movie theater and imported more foreign films, that sounded like a possibility. But did she honestly want to spend that much time with a stranger, no matter how handsome that stranger was?

Probably not.

' _Botanical gardens it is, then,_ ' she decided, checking the little square on the far left. ' _And don't set the bar too high, Ino. That's what wrecked it last time._ '


	12. 11 - Unhappy Hour

**Author's Notes: Thank you for all the positive reviews on the story! I'll admit that I've lost a good bit of my Naruto mojo due to a lack of feedback on some of my passion projects (especially the Vines series), but I wanted to give a little something back to all of you who have quickly turned** ** _Sai Hiden_** **into my most popular story.**

 **Updates won't be all that frequent, but I do have the bare bones of** ** _Sai Hiden_** **outlined. It'll just be a case of finding the time to update with other projects.**

 **This is a very important chapter for the general plot, though. I hope you enjoy!**

 **Also…in case anyone wants to laugh with the other Foundation folks over what comes on the radio, here are the links: watch?v=sgNTHyo8CeY and watch?v=QsNYHCNWAnM**

 **…**

There was an unopened bottle of plum wine in the refrigerator. Hinoto knew she could have it because her partner said she could. They had a really easy rule to follow regarding food and drink in the house: if it didn't have somebody's name written on it, then it was fair game.

None of the things in there had Hinoto's name on them. She'd written it on a box of diet sodas once, but had since learned those weren't in any danger of disappearing. They were all hers.

"You're sure he won't mind if we drink his alcohol?" Hyō asked. "Considering he's our new commander, I want to make sure I don't antagonize him."

"If he gave a shit, he'd write his name on the package," Hinoto insisted as she poured a shot for both of her guests. "Since he didn't, that just means he'll ask me to pick up a replacement the next time it's my turn to buy groceries."

They had a system. Whoever consumed more than 50% of an item had to replenish it later. If it was a close call and they weren't sure who maxed out beyond the halfway mark, he'd pick it up because he made more money.

Kinoto and Hyō lifted the bottom of their masks up so their noses and jaws were visible. It would be easier to drink that way, but neither could see much of anything like that.

"It's not like we're expecting anyone else to join us," Hinoto reminded them. "The masks can come off."

Hyō and Kinoto did as instructed, though only because their female colleague wasn't wearing hers, either. The lights were turned off and all the blinds were pulled down. As a result, the multitude of scars on Hinoto's face seemed redder and more pronounced than they did in plain daylight.

She could have had a medic at Konoha General Hospital fix the damage, but opted not to. Why bother when she spent most of her days as an anonymous person with a mask over her face? She wasn't a vain thing, nor had she ever been.

Secondly, back when Danzō was still in control, a busted-up face prevented Hinoto from being picked for honeypot missions. Those were her least favorite type, so getting a little roughed up had actually worked to her advantage. It meant more stealth attacks and assassinations, which were more to her liking.

Kinoto and Hyō were a bit more slow-moving to take their masks off, if only because they still wore them for roughly eighty percent of their waking hours. Sometimes they even had to sleep in those masks.

"Do you ever feel naked without it?" Hyō asked. "Somehow I doubt you keep the mask on when you and Mikuro- _dono_ —"

"That's confidential," Hinoto teased, a tiny smirk appearing on her lips. "What we do behind closed doors is of no concern to you."

"But it is," Hyō countered. "He's part of the—"

Hinoto cleared her throat, reached for a remote control, and pushed a button. The home entertainment system contained a set of surround-sound speakers. After pushing a few more buttons, the radio was on and loud enough (and close enough to the door) to mask the conversation. There was no way any potential eavesdropper could overhear them with that noise going on.

Kinoto actually sniggered a bit when he heard what came on the radio. "Oh dear god. He listens to Enka music?"

"Mikuro- _dono_ is in his fifties. Cut him a little slack. I can put something else on, if you want."

"No need, Hinoto. I just wasn't expecting that. That's all." And Kinoto would try not to hum a few bars of it when he reported to work the following day. He didn't want to antagonize Mikuro, either.

"So," Hinoto took a big gulp of her drink and put it firmly back down on the table. "What happened in yesterday's session?"

"Ever heard of a little thing called Doctor-Patient Privilege, Hinoto?" Hyō teased. She was not amused. "I made a joke just now."

"Oh. Ha." She didn't find it funny.

"One of the kids died," Kinoto told her. "Then Leiji- _sensei_ lied to our faces and said he killed himself. But that wasn't the focus of the session. He was most interested in finding out where Tanuki went. Kido named him as an accomplice."

"And Leiji- _sensei_ should at least know enough about the Foundation to know that if Kido could incriminate another operative, that he's _lying_ , right? Shigaraki Tanuki has another purpose he must fulfill."

They all had other purposes. Both men nodded at Hinoto's words.

"He's working on the _Gozu Tennō_ project, isn't he?" Kinoto asked, watching as Hinoto nodded her head. Her long, dark ponytail flopped across her chest. "That's a whole other animal. _Literally_."

Hyō hadn't touched his alcohol. He just kept spinning the glass around, watching as the liquid reached all the way to the edge of the cup and made a tiny cyclone in his hand. "Kido handled two things well and two things only: finances and pharmaceuticals. We have no further use for him."

There was a long silence between the three. They had to mull over their options. Another inappropriately cheery-sounding song blasted through the airwaves.

"I'll ask Mikuro what he wants to do about Kido," Hinoto commented. Neither man corrected her for leaving off the honorific. "But you know how he is. Whatever we're doing, he wants us to keep a low profile. I'm not saying we _couldn't_ break Kido out and eliminate him in an undisclosed location. I'm just saying that if we did, we'd be Konoha Intelligence's top choice for suspects. I don't want to risk it when we have more important things to attend to."

"So we should let Kido continue to sing like a bird in his cage?" Hyō handed his drink over to Kinoto, who thanked him for his generosity. "I don't like that option. Sooner or later, he'll say something close enough to the truth that someone will have to go down for it."

"And Hinoto, you're not attending the sessions anymore." Kinoto's brow furrowed. "Leiji- _sensei's_ really pressuring for leads. The entire atmosphere in that room was accusatory, even threatening. I'm not afraid of him. I know he's a worm, but that worm has a powerful uncle."

Hyō leaned back in his chair and put his feet on the table. So much for not doing anything that could potentially irk his new commander, provided he came home early…which he never did. "We all know Councilor Homura has a hate boner for us. Kido got the best of him earlier this year and he's still feeling the impact of it."

"Yeah." Hinoto sighed, nodding her head as she poured another round of drinks for the group. "Mikuro thinks the Councilor planned on taking away a large chunk of change from the budget for Haruno Sakura's therapy project. He's done it with other projects in the past, and the girl wouldn't know any better. It's her first time with a project like that, so she'd probably assume the cut came from taxes and overhead.

"When that money got earmarked for ANBU instead, that changed everything. He can't pull that shit with Kido. Say what you will about him; but the man's a financial genius."

"So Councilor Homura has it out for us because Kido cheated him out of something he planned to steal from someone else?" Hyō tilted his head. "I'm not sure if I buy that."

"Greed's one hell of a motivator, Hyō." Hinoto's second glass was already empty. "So, too, is pride. Both Councilors are trying their best to distance themselves from Danzō- _sama_ 's old projects. They're pulling the plug wherever they can. It's a miracle the Hokage even let another member of the Shimura Clan take Kido's old seat."

The bottle was empty. Hinoto got up, put the bottle in the recycling bin, and wrote it down on the magnetized notepad Mikuro kept on the refrigerator. She'd pick it up later in the week, along with more oolong tea, frozen pork and leek dumplings, low-sodium soy sauce, and black sesame paste.

"We can't touch Kido," she reminded the other two. "And Mikuro's going to find out if you do something like that behind his back. Just let Morino Ibiki keep doing what he's doing. Once he has everything he needs, Kido will be sent off to Blood Prison and never come back."

"Something could happen to him along the way," Hyō chimed in. "Like an accident."

"No." She was firm about this. "Not unless you get the order from your commander. Remember how Danzō- _sama_ handled operatives who decided to act as free agents?"

Hyō tensed up. He still had his little black pill. They all did.

"Do you really want to use that pill just yet, Hyō? What about the Business Continuity Plan?" They all sat in silence, reflecting on the importance of that last mission. "It's only a while longer, Hyō. If you can help your new commander out for the time being, it will pay off later. I promise."

The deadbolt outside made a clicking noise. Three seconds later, the door was open. The man of the house had returned about two hours early…not that he saw anyone home other than Hinoto. He could sense two more, but they were hidden.

"Hey," Hinoto called out, finishing her glass. "How was work?"

"I'm still getting used to that laptop computer the Hokage expects me to use," Mikuro remarked. "I accidentally left the charger here."

"You're working from home, then?"

"Yeah. Sorry about that." There was a tired look on his face, but also a glimmer of hopefulness in those exhausted brown eyes. "Is there any more of that wine left?"

"I'll buy more." She heard a faint sigh leave his mouth.


End file.
